A LADY IN RED SPRINTS onto Madam's Organ's dance floor. She moves wildly — flailing arms, quick footwork, whirling like a dervish.

She's a woman possessed, but by what?

The ear-to-ear grin rules out a demonic presence, and she's far too coordinated to be inebriated.

Plain and simple, it's the music.

On an average Wednesday night in D.C., she and many others are under the spell of Bob Perilla's Big Hillbilly Bluegrass. Fronted by vocalist-guitarist Perilla, the fluctuating group of five, sometimes six, has been using the infectious rhythms of bluegrass music to bring crowds to their dancing feet for 14 years (seven with the band's current members).

They're a bunch of alarmingly talented musicians consisting of Mike Munford on banjo, Tad Marks on fiddle, Ira Gitlin on upright bass, Elizabeth Day contributing vocals and occasional appearances by mandolin player Akira Otsuka. All are guilty of making their music-making look effortless, yet they put on a lively show of up-tempo originals, folk, country and traditional bluegrass tunes that attracts longtime genre devotees as well as newcomers.

Loyal fan base and weekly Wednesday gigs aside, Madam's Organ has given Big Hillbilly Bluegrass two notable gifts.

"Madam's was responsible for naming the band," says Perilla. "I'm not a skinny guy now, but I was much heavier many years ago. And our mandolin player at the time was absolutely gargantuan. One day, the billboard outside said 'Bob Perilla' and then in parentheses it said 'REALLY Big Hillbillies.' I know a sign from God when I see one."

Madam's was also where the Hillbillies made one of their defining connections. A government employee by day and concert-goer by night spotted the group and asked them to travel the world on the State Department's dime, playing music as American cultural ambassadors.

"Twenty years ago, the State Department would have been much more likely to take jazz groups on tour," explains Perilla. "Jazz is pretty internationalized now. With bluegrass, even though there are pockets of it elsewhere, it's still an American idiom."

Perilla and his band have traveled to places such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan and the Dominican Republic spreading good tunes. The gig is fitting for the personable and acutely in touch Perilla, who commends veterans and coal miners between songs and thanks the unsung heroes for their often thankless work — namely, the bartender.

» EXPRESS: Where are you from and how did you get involved in bluegrass?
» PERILLA: I'm from rural Maryland. Woodbine is the town. It was much more rural when I was growing up than it is now. I hear they only have six Starbucks!

I was interested in music from a very early age and there wasn't a lot of music in my family, and I was originally attracted to playing banjo and later on played drums in rock 'n' roll bands and after that picked up guitar. I was not a very accomplished drummer or banjo player but I was really enamored of the bluegrass style. I heard it on a record first, and then found that there was a place near my home where people gathered to play bluegrass music and that was my initial exposure. It was called Jim's Barbershop in Sykesville, Maryland.

Later on when I went to college, I didn't know at that stage that Washington was such a great epicenter for bluegrass. There used to be an outfit on M Street called the Shamrock Tavern. I went there four or five nights a week, much to the detriment of my academic career, and that's when I really said to myself, "I want to do that." I learned that bluegrass music is almost like a tribe. You don't have to be born into it; you can volunteer and you belong.

» EXPRESS: When did you get together with the band? How did your career develop?
» PERILLA: Everybody in the band has known each other for 20 years or more, and we all worked professionally in various other bands during that time period. About seven years ago the band came together in its present form. I am so very pleased and proud to work with them. If one is a good bandleader, then priority number one is making sure you're the least talented musician onstage. That's what a good bandleader does: He gets the very best musicians possible.

» EXPRESS: You're about to go back into the studio. Tell me a little about that.
» PERILLA: This [album] is going to stress a little more original material; I have six new tunes that we're going to record on the next disc. We're going to do some public domain traditional material … pre-bluegrass, some of it, but done in a bluegrass style. The working title is "Bluegrass Ambassadors." We're getting ready to go in February, so a legitimate street day is probably May.

» EXPRESS: Can you tell me a little bit about your gig at Madam's?
» PERILLA: I think we're closing in on 13 or 14 years of every Wednesday night, which is quite a long time. Madam's has given our style a chance to evolve. Many of the various things that we have been able to do, including our movie appearance with Chris Rock [in his "Head of State"] and our tours with the State Department came about as a result of the exposure that we've had at Madam's Organ. We've married off more than 20 couples who either met or had their first date at Madam's. In some ways, we'd hoped that the career rise would have been a bit more meteoric, but in general it's been a wonderful place to us. Owner Bill Duggan is a wonderful man.

» EXPRESS: What's your favorite song to play? To listen to?
» PERILLA: I like to play the Bill Monroe instrumental composition "Roanoke," which is on our first record. Never ceases to thrill me. It's not a complex composition, it's just one that really speaks to me. My favorite song to listen to is "On Green Dolphin Street," the classic Miles Davis recording.

» EXPRESS: So you enjoy jazz?
» PERILLA: Love jazz. Last night I went to Wolf Trap to see the John Jorgensen quintet. Jorgensen does so many things musically, and I would have to say that he is arguably my absolute favorite guitarist. And we can't get into music without momentarily mourning the sad loss of pianist Oscar Peterson. What a giant. I had the privilege to see him three times in my life and he played with more singular command of his instrument than anyone I've ever heard.

» EXPRESS: In terms of your State Department tours, how did people who had never heard bluegrass before react to it?
» PERILLA: People respond to rhythm. That's a human, universal thing. Bluegrass has an infectious, and if I may say so, insistent rhythm and I find that people respond to it beautifully all over the world.

» Madam's Organ, 2461 18th St. NW; Wed., 9 p.m., $4; 202-667-5370. (Woodley Park)

Photos by Chris Combs/Express

Posted by Karmah Elmusa at 8:19 AM on January 30, 2008
Tagged in Entertainment , Music , The District , Top Stories , Woodley Park